The NBA All-Star game is headed back to Charlotte in 2019, a couple of years later than anticipated.

wire reports

Report says bill leaves 51M uninsured in 2026

The Congressional Budget Office says an estimated 51 million people under age 65 would be uninsured in 2026 under the latest version of the House Republican health care bill.

That compares with 28 million under age 65 who would lack insurance that year under the current health law signed by President Barack Obama.

And it's only a tiny improvement from the original version of the House bill, which would have resulted in an estimated 52 million people under 65 uninsured by 2026, according to the nonpartisan budget office.

The information is in the so-called "score" released Wednesday of the legislation the House passed earlier this month. It's been eagerly awaited but shows little change on insurance coverage compared with the earlier version of the health bill, which collapsed.

Trump budget faces Dem opposition, GOP doubts about math

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's budget chief delivered a spirited defense of the plan's deep spending cuts, but his agriculture secretary offered only a half-hearted endorsement of proposed reductions to farm subsidies and food stamps.

A day after the budget's release, a handful of senior administration officials fanned out on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, facing tough questions from Democrats opposed to the blueprint for the upcoming fiscal year and Republicans skeptical about the administration's math.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, meanwhile, gave Republicans the unwelcome news that they may have to cast a dreaded vote on increasing the government's borrowing authority before they had hoped. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos faced a grilling from Democrats over funding private schools with taxpayer money.

One House Budget Committee member, Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., told White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney that Trump's proposed cuts to medical research are "penny-wise and pound-foolish" — and then excused himself to preside over DeVos' testimony.

Jury of 12 on Bill Cosby sex assault case includes 2 blacks

PITTSBURGH — The jury that will hear the sex assault case against Bill Cosby will include two blacks among its 12 members.

Prosecutors and the defense team on Wednesday also selected three of six alternates, and two of them are black.

Cosby's lawyers had complained this week that prosecutors were trying to keep blacks off the jury with their seven strikes. The judge, though, found prosecutors had other valid reasons to strike two black women earlier this week. The jury makeup of 17 percent is higher than the 13 percent black population in Allegheny County.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The NBA All-Star game is headed back to Charlotte in 2019, a couple of years later than anticipated.

The NBA announced that the All-Star weekend will be held Feb. 15-17 in Charlotte and the game will be played at the Spectrum Center, home of the Charlotte Hornets.

The league had selected Charlotte to host the 2017 All-Star game, but later moved the game to New Orleans because of the state law restricting the rights of LGBT people. However, a compromise was struck in March to partially erase the impact of the House Bill 2 law limiting anti-discrimination protections for lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender people.

"While we understand the concerns of those who say the repeal of HB2 did not go far enough, we believe the recent legislation eliminates the most egregious aspects of the prior law," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a release. "Additionally, it allows us to work with the leadership of the Hornets organization to apply a set of equality principles to ensure that every All-Star event will proceed with open access and anti-discrimination policies.

"All venues, hotels and businesses we work with during All-Star will adhere to these policies as well."